Members Blogs

If you follow me on twitter then you will know this from a few weeks ago. If not a couple of weeks ago I got confirmation from The FA that I am now a level 1 FA Tutor. This means I can now work on the courses for new referees. It's a big learning curve and I've now worked on four different courses. The FA take a lot of stick but areas like this do t get covered by the press as positive news is boring. When I passes in 93 it was an over head projector, one video tape and the instructor smoked a pipe. The day of a two day course i worked one the other week was more than 50% on a football pitch with a 45 minute video session on advantage. This was only reduced as we ha to do a session on report writing which has to be classroom and a bit...

Something new on the blog: In the dressing room. This time with photo’s of the referee’s dressing room in Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Had some ideas about photo’s of different dressing rooms on the blog, but don’t know if people would like it if I only post them from changing rooms I visit (Send me your pictures if you have them!). That’s when I found out Constant Onstenk, secretary of the board of the Referee Association of Arnhem (city in the eastern part of Holland), visited the Emirates Stadium with his wife and posted some of here photo’s in the local referee magazine. He wrote that the dressing rooms were locked, but he could enter them after he asked politely. It’s actually a referee area, with three different rooms: a dressing...

On Saturday 7th March 2012, I was appointed for my first game in charge of a ‘real-life’ football match – the boy became a man, refereeing (of a local league Division 4 game) became a reality… In the interests of fair play and, probably more importantly, in an attempt to avoid sounding boring, this blog was never intended to provide a minute by minute post-mortem of a match or individually name teams/players that I take charge of on a Saturday afternoon. A short summary and mention of any contentious decisions is more than enough, so here we go… Overall, considering this was my first game, I thought things went rather well (I would say that, I’m a referee now) and I enjoyed being out on a football pitch for the first time in 20 years as...

Just got photo’s in my inbox from the bombing of the bakery of Greek international referee Petros Konstantineas. About two weeks ago an unknown person has put a bomb in an oven in Konstantineas’ store. Because he was late at work, starting at 1am, he wasn’t injured. The case is still under police investigation. Source of photo’s: http://www.refereepress.blogspot.com/ Continue reading...

Asian top referee Ravshan Irmatov talks about his tactical approach of matches. See more recent referee video’s on the Asian Football Conferation’s YouTube Channel. - AFC Elite Referee Instructor, Shamsul Maidin on AFC’s Referee Development Program. - Benjamin Jon Williams with an advice for young referees. - AFC Elite Referee Instructor Ali Traifi explains the selection process for AFC Project Future Referees. - AFC Elite Referee Fitness Instructor, Utsumi Toshio speaks about the importance of physical fitness in modern day refereeing. Dutch Referee Blog has spoken with Ravshan Irmatov form Uzbekistan during 2010′s World Cup in South-Africa. Read the article here. Ravshan Irmatov Continue reading...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “I am very disappointed. The referees in this country must back up because I will not be surprised if one day a referee is shot.” That’s refereeing in Ghana. A quote by coach Josef Sarpong from Liberty Professionals. He was not happy with referee Awal Mohammed’s performance. And this happened on Monday 12th: referee Patrick Kyeremanteng is recovering in hospital after fans attacked him. “Referee in chimp’s land.” The header of a German news article about life in a chimpanzee group, based on research from the University of Zürich. As the author wrote: “Almost...

Another case for goal line technology Continue reading...

Was just given this book by a family member who picked it up at a jumble sale. Just for fun what year did this come out Continue reading...

Tomorrow morning's game brings to an end of one of the longest weeks I've experienced in a long time. It started quietly enough with a trip to one of the wettest grounds I've refereed at for a fixture between two teams close to the bottom of the bottom division of the local Sunday League. I had one of my assessments there when I was going for promotion to Level 5 and in the words of the assessor, it was a true blood and thunder cup tie. This game was much quieter but I had to do something I've never done before which is consider sanctioning a player before kick off. I decided to caution and did my best to work with this player to keep him in the game but close to the end of the game he received a second caution and was dismissed...

Premier League referee Peter Walton will be moving to the US next month to take up a position working with the MLS. The MLS Officials do get a lot of grief (sometimes valid) however there has been a drive in the US to try and rule out some of the rough play during games. I have though had the impression that the MLS are quite good at being public about their efforts to work with the officials. For a few years there used to be a weekly podcast where they would talk about key incidents during the week and were not afraid to be critical of officials. Continue reading...

If your lucky you may have a cup semi or final or big league game coming up. You may also have the luxury of having qualified assistant referees working with you. The catch to this if your not used to it, you may not make the most of this opportunity. Over on Referee-Inactive there is a great post on how to handle this situation and get the most from it. Link to Post Continue reading...

Just came across this video on 101 Great Goals. It compares the Maradona goal for Argentina in 86 against England against a Messi goal against Gettafe. Continue reading...

This weekends football passed me by due to the little one being ill. So ive just been catching up and completely forgot that it was the IFAB meeting. FIFA have recommend that Hawk Eye and GoalRef continue the test phase on goal line technology. Hawk Eye is a well known system that uses cameras. Where as GoalRef uses a magnetic system and a special ball. Given there has been two incidents recently in Spain & Italy it shows there is a need to look at this in more depth. My only concern is it will split the game further between the have and have nots The other changes that were approved. Clarification around position of advertising boarding Players sock tape has to be the same colour as the sock Clarification around what should...

During an amateur game in Belgium the Referee judged that one of the players during this aerial dived. Im not sure how he worked that out and I do wonder if there was something else thats not reported in the clip. Anyway, the player who was cautioned and then dismissed went to Hospital and had 3 displaced vertebrae! Seen via offthepost.info Continue reading...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “We are working towards a situation where only the captains can confer with referees during the game. Breaches will be punished with a yellow or red card.” The Norwegian FA in a statement. They started a ‘Handshake for Peace’ in partnership with the Nobel Peace Centre. “When I played football myself, I thought referees were horrible people.” Dutch top level referee Tom van Sichem tells that he got booked very often for talking to the referee. “What struck me about Kevin (Friend), and in the same way as when I saw Darren Cann and Mike Mullarkey speak, was just...

It might be a bit late to help some of you who have worked with neutral assistants for the first time on this year's honour appointments (cup semis and finals) BUT one of my young referees asked me for some advice so here is my expanded pre-match instruction to neutral assistants (Yes I know it's not perfect and I may have made some mistakes putting it together, but I think it will still help ... 1. Pre-match – third team, work together, warm-up a. Third team – you’ve reached the final just like the players, based on your ability and have earned your appointments so well done b. Work together – both teams will want to win and the only friends out on the field are your colleagues so look after each other c. Warm-up – it’s an easy trick...

Weve seen these many times before, however its allways impressive when someone actually pulls one of these off. Continue reading...

Α bomb exploded in the oven at the house of Greek Fifa referee Petros Konstantineas at 1:20 in the morning. He escaped miraculously as he usually begins his work in the shop at 1 am, but tonight he was late to go to work. That’s what I just heard from a Greek journalist for a national referee magazine and personally blogging on Referee Revolution. The bomb was placed in the oven of his company by strangers. The powerful explosion also caused considerable damage to cars that were parked near the store. The same for buildings and shops nerby.The police officers and firemen moved directly to the company and are documenting the damage in the house. Kostantineas has joined Fifa at the beginning of 2012. He’s been a fourt official in this...

‘Referees in the media’ will be published at the beginning of the week on the Dutch Referee Blog and provides remarkable or interesting quotes and links to articles worth reading. “Gone are the days when 30 minutes steady jogging is a suitable training.” Says World Cup Final assistant referee Mike Mullarkey in his ‘ten point plan to be a top assistant’. Read full list in FA’s magazine Refereeing. “It’s generally not conducive that criticism on referees is told via the media. It’s more important that we talk together, not about each other.” Lutz Michael Fröhlich, referee chef in Germany after criticism from Bayern’s Uli Hoeness. “I had planned to sit down for a chat with FIFA’s new head of refereeing, the famous ref Massimo Busacca, who...

I turned out nice and early for this morning's Sunday Trophy Quarter Final and had 90 minutes of enjoyment with 2 teams who wanted to play football. I saw some spectacular goals, had to make some close calls and deal with my least favourite condition - cramp! After last night's RA Dinner I had an upset stomach (euphemism alert!) which continued into the morning and despite my best efforts at staying hydrated, it seems that my potassium levels were low and I got cramp in my right calf. I kept easing it through rotating my ankle and flexing my knee but it hampered my progress for much of the 2nd half. I got through and we had a result at 90 minutes which allowed me to head home for a quick clean up before heading to watch this...